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A closer look at criticisms of New York's new gun law

Gun Owners Rally in AlbanyThousands of gun owners from across New York State traveled to Albany to protest the stricter gun-control law recently passed. A group from Central New York met with Assemblyman Will Barclay (who voted against the bill) before joining the mass rally at noon outside the Capitol. David Lassman | dlassman@syracuse.comWatch video

Syracuse, N.Y. -- The NY Safe Act has stirred such a protest from gun owners that some Albany lawmakers are taking another look at the nation’s toughest weapons ban that they passed in January.

So what exactly is the gun owners’ beef? Here’s a factual examination of some of the criticisms of the law:

The seven-bullet maximum essentially bans most semi-automatic weapons: Some gun owners are saying that Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s insistence on a seven-bullet maximum in semi-automatic magazines is a back-handed way of banning a whole host of weaponry. Why? Because no seven-round magazines exist on the market, pro-gun lobbyists and an Onondaga County gun store owner say.

There are five-round magazines made, says Tony Steiner, the owner of AKS Firearms in LaFayette, both for pistols and for long guns, like the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. But so few of those small magazines exist, Steiner says he can’t find any to stock at his store. “I would if I could get them,” he said. “There’s so few made. It’s not a very common thing.”

But those who already own 10-round mags won’t have to do a thing, according to the new law. The Safe Act does not require any modification of any 10-round magazines owned before Jan. 15, when Cuomo signed the NY Safe Act. In fact, the only 10-round magazines that have to be modified are those purchased from Jan. 15 to April 15, when sales in the state are banned.

And lawmakers and the governor are currently making moves to nix that ban on sales, acknowledging that if you can use a 10-round clip at the gun range, you ought to be able to buy one at the gun shop.

So if that change passes, what’s left? Well, shooters still can fully load their 10-round magazines if shooting at an incorporated firing range or competition recognized by the NRA or International Handgun Metallic Silhouette Association. Otherwise, everyone is supposed to just put seven rounds in the clips.

And the law lets gun owners keep previously owned larger magazines – so long as they are modified down to a seven-round capacity.

That takes some expertise, says Tom King, president of the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association, one of the leading critics of the law. “It’s not something that the average gun owner could do,” King said. “Magazines are one of the most critical areas of a handgun. If it doesn’t feed the bullet properly, it will jam.”

The sanctions go after law-abiding gun owners rather than mass shooters:

There’s no question the NY Safe Act does require all people who own certain semi-automatic weapons to comply with additional rules – namely registration of guns now defined as assault weapons and recertifying any pistol permits every five years.

Cuomo and other supporters of the law see the ban of these newly defined assault weapons as a way to reduce the availability of high-capacity weapons in New York. And it’s these high-capacity weapons that often, but not always, have been used in what have become known as mass shootings.

The Brady Center, an advocate for gun control, keeps a list of shootings where semi-automatic guns with large magazines have been used. Those include shootings at a mall in Ulster County in 2005, in an Aurora, Colo., theater last summer, and at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in December.

While New York’s law limits new purchases of 10-round magazines, the law grandfathers in previously owned ones – with the caveat that shooter only put seven rounds in the clip.

That means the state is counting on everybody – including a potential mass shooter with a grandfathered 10-round clip – to load just seven casings at a time.

Even the governor acknowledged that the law’s limits on magazine sizes and the seven-bullet maximum wouldn’t stop a determined killer.

“A mass shooter, then, could put in a 20- or 30 round,” Cuomo said today in Albany. “If you’re saying the law if going to be violated, you could put in a 30-round magazine.”

Those larger magazines are illegal in New York now, but Cuomo said law-breakers could simply go to another state to buy the bigger clips. “You can buy larger magazines in other states. That’s why the federal law is so important.”

The Safe Act has a slew of other new policies and restrictions meant as a deterrent for potential mass murderers, says Leah Gunn Barrett, executive director of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence. Those include a first-degree murder charge for killing a first responder; increasing the penalty for carrying a gun to school to a felony; giving judges more power to remove guns from those under an order of protection; and requiring background checks for private gun and ammunition sales.

“Laws sometimes lead cultural change,” Gunn Barrett said. “The law can then say, ‘We’ve had enough of this.’”

The NY Safe Act won’t make us safer:

A study published last week by the JAMA Internal Medicine journal found that states with stricter gun laws have lower gun-related homicide rates. Of the 11 states with the strictest gun laws (including New York), seven had the lowest gun-related fatalities per 100,000 people from 2007 to 2010.

"States that have the most laws have a 42 percent decreased rate of firearm fatalities compared to those with the least laws," Dr. Eric W. Fleegler, an attending physician in pediatric emergency medicine at Boston Children's Hospital and an assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, told CNN last week.

But Fleegler and his co-authors were quick to point out their research does not prove the next logical question: Will stricter gun laws guarantee fewer homicides?

“The real question is not about the number of firearm laws but whether the laws ultimately safeguard the citizens they are intended to protect,” the authors wrote in their summary. “Although multiple studies have examined the relationship between federal and state firearm laws and homicide and suicide rates, the overall association between firearm legislation and firearm mortality is uncertain and remains controversial.”

The penalties are too strict:

Some gun owners have argued the penalties for not complying with the NY Safe Act put them on par with sexual abusers.

It’s true, those who don’t register their newly banned guns by April 15, 2014 (or sell them out-of-state by Jan. 15) can face a Class A misdemeanor for not registering. The same is true for people caught not following the laws “safe storage” guidelines. Other crimes with the same classification include having sex with an animal, sexually and forcibly touching someone without his or her permission, or subjecting a child 13 or younger to sexual contact.
But the law allows anyone caught with an unregistered gun 30 days to comply with the law, no questions asked to avoid any criminal charge.

“Situations involving those who fail to register an assault weapon are clearly defined in the Safe Act,” says Rich Azzopardi, the governor’s spokesman. “A first offense involving a failure to register results in a 30-day warning. Subsequent failure to do so is an A misdemeanor, or, in certain circumstances, an E felony.”

Those caught with an unregistered gun after Jan. 14 will not face third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, a Class D felony, the current charge for having an assault weapon, according to the governor’s office.

People found possessing magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds that haven’t been modified to hold seven bullets have 30 days to turn them into law enforcement officials and face no penalty.

The law was jammed down our throats:

The NY Safe Act was introduced in the New York State Legislature on Jan. 14. Lawmakers requested a message of necessity from the governor – a legal requirement to circumvent a three-day waiting period for new legislation – which the legislators then approved.

The New York State Senate passed the proposal later that day. The New York State Assembly publicly debated the proposal for nearly six hours on Jan. 15. In the end it passed that chamber by a margin of more than 2 to 1. The same day, Cuomo signed the bill into law. Three days later – Jan. 18 – the state launched a website to address the flood of questions from gun owners about how the new laws worked.

Messages of necessity, though much-criticized, are routine in Albany lawmaking, especially when the issues are important and controversial. How can this be? Just ask Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who is defending a legal challenge from political activist Robert Schulz.

In legal papers, Schneiderman points out previous courts have upheld messages of necessity, in part because the Legislature takes a role in approving the request for fast action from the governor. The lawmakers, after all, don’t have to vote on the message of necessity or the proposed bill itself. In the past, the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, has agreed.

Here’s a part of Cuomo’s request for the speedy vote:

“Some weapons are so dangerous, and some ammunition so lethal, that New York state much act without delay to prohibit their continued sale and possession in the state in order to protect its children, first responders and citizens as soon as possible. This bill, if enacted, would do so by immediately banning the ownership, purchase and sale of assault weapons and large capacity feeding devices, and eliminate them from commerce in New York state.”

The law does that, to a degree. It did immediately halt new sales of semi-automatic guns that have a detachable magazine and an extra feature that can make the gun easier to hold and shoot multiple bullets in a short time. But the law also allows pre-owned assault weapons to remain with their current owners, so long as they register them.